


belong

by vraist



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 13:26:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20292196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vraist/pseuds/vraist
Summary: Negan's holding Rick by the jaw as he repeats, louder: "You answer to me. You provide for me. Youbelongto me.Right?"As he looks into those eyes again, something happens. The shuddering stops. Rick's breathing slows, evens. His face slacks, his body relaxes. For a moment, he's just… blank. Tabula-fucking-rasa.The next instant is one Negan will remember as the exact moment Rick Grimes fucking snapped.———Negan breaks Rick, but not in the way he expects.





	belong

"Let me ask you something, Rick – do you even know what that little trip was about?" 

Negan waits, then – "Speak when you're spoken to."

Through heavy breaths, Rick manages to get out, "Okay. Okay."

He's skittish, like a wounded animal, and for some reason it makes Negan half-smile. 

"That trip was about the way that you… looked at me," he starts. "I wanted to change that. I _wanted_ you to understand." 

Pausing, Negan presses his lips together in amusement. "But you're still looking at me the _same damn way…_ like I shit in your scrambled eggs, and that's not gonna work."

"So…" He switches Lucille between his hands as he crouches to Rick's level. "Do I give you another chance?" 

He waits, again, and gets a few more shuddery breaths before Rick remembers to speak. "Yeah. Yes. Yes."

It's entertaining, at least. Seeing him struggle. Negan pats him on the back before getting up, saying brightly, "Okay! Alright. And here it is – the grand-prize game."

———

And the grand-prize game has _just_ the fucking effect Negan was going for. Bringing the kid into it – god _damn,_ Negan's a ruthless bastard. The thought comes not without pride. 

"Rick." Negan's crouching down beside him again, and the man who looks into his eyes is not a man. He is watery blues and shaking limbs and less than the sum of his parts. 

Calmly, Negan lays out his terms for Rick. "You answer to me. You provide for me. You belong to me. Right?" 

He bobs his head insistently. It's not good enough. _"Speak when you're spoken to!"_

Negan's holding Rick by the jaw as he repeats, louder: "You answer to me. You provide for me. You _belong_ to me. _Right?"_

As he looks into those eyes again, something happens. The shuddering stops. Rick's breathing slows, evens. His face slacks, his body relaxes. For a moment, he's just… blank. Tabula-fucking-rasa. 

The next instant is one Negan will remember as the exact moment Rick Grimes fucking snapped.

His eyes get this sweet sort of fire in them, and he smiles something like conspiratorially, like the next thing he'll say is a secret he wants to let Negan in on. 

"I belong to you," he breathes, and seals it with a kiss. 

Negan lets himself be shocked for all of a second before closing his eyes and getting in on this, because hot _damn_ this'll be a story. 

"Holy shit," he hears himself say, and then he's laughing, because _holy shit._ "I just busted your grapefruit wide the fuck open, didn't I?" 

Rick just fucking _giggles,_ and Negan smiles back at him in incredulous wonder, stroking the side of Rick's face. "I sure fuckin' did. Jesus Christ. Didn't even have to use Lucille to get to the inside of your noggin, huh, Rick?" 

He's not sure Rick even understands a word out of his damn mouth, but Negan's still getting the full brunt of an adoring gaze. "That… is not the look I wanted to see, but fuck, I'll take it."

Negan starts to get up, but Rick makes a disappointed noise and finally speaks, a soft, "Don't go."

Because he's an asshole, Negan looks to the rest of the group and grins, raising his eyebrows. They're all somewhere between looking at Rick like he grew a second head and looking just plain guilty, like it's somehow their fault he cracked. The kid, still on the ground, looks like he's particularly having trouble not saying something about all this. 

Them aside, though, Negan's got a crock of crazy to attend to. He takes Rick's jaw in his hand again, gently this time, and says, "I'm just gettin' up, dollface. You wanna get up?" 

Simon throws him a weird look, but Negan just ignores it. Rick gets up with Negan's help and, once up, presses a kiss to the side of Negan's chin that Negan finds himself returning with a proper one, because come _on._ This shit is just too good. 

With Rick under his arm, Negan addresses the group again. "We did it. All of us, together. Even the dead guys on the ground! Hell, they get the spirit award, for sure." 

Rick laughs at that, a low, easy sound, and it's downright cruel. He looks like he's taking genuine pleasure in his friends' misfortune. He smiles up at Negan like that, and it makes Negan grin back. 

"Today was a _productive_ damn day!" 

While Negan speaks, he's got a hand on the back of Rick's neck, playing with the curls there. Rick's soaking it up like a needy cat. "Now, I hope, for all your sake... that you get it now. That you understand how things work. Things have changed. Whatever you had going for you... that is over now."

"As for _you,"_ Negan's tone is all playful as he looks at Rick, but he's a surprisingly soft touch, voice quiet. "Well, whaddaya say, Rick? You wanna come back with me?" 

He gets another slow kiss for his efforts, and Christ, Negan really doesn't mind that. Not at all. 

"Please," Rick answers sweetly. 

It's much easier to get Rick into the RV this time.

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is my first twd fic! i know it's kind of a ridiculous premise but it's oddly satisfying to write. i'm not sure if i'll continue from here, i do kind of want to, but i'm not sure where i'm going with this to be honest.


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